Work · Sociology & Social Theory
The Philosophy of Money
Money as the pure form of exchange – and how it shapes freedom, distance and the style of modern life.
Introduction
Simmel’s longest book appeared in Leipzig in 1900, with a revised edition in 1907. Despite its title it is less an economic study than a philosophy of modern culture seen through money. The “analytical” first part asks what value is and explains money as the purest expression of the relativity of value: things count by what they can be exchanged for. The “synthetic” second part follows money’s effects on individual freedom, the division of labour and the pace of life – its tendency to turn quality into quantity and to put distance between people. Max Weber drew on the book in The Protestant Ethic, and Lukács’ theory of reification is indebted to it.
Connections
Responds to
- Capital1867 · Karl Marx
Taken up in
- Sociology: Inquiries into the Construction of Social Forms1908 · Georg Simmel
More works by Georg Simmel
As of November 2026 · Improve this page · How Agora is made